Malawi in 2000

Malawi was applauded by outside observers for promptly providing two of its three helicopters to assist in rescue operations in neighbouring Mozambique, where floods devastated southern districts in February 2000.

That month a court case was brought against the government by the opposition, which claimed that the 1999 elections had been rigged. The opposition appeared to have the support of an independent monitoring group, which in its report accused the government of serious procedural shortcomings, including media manipulation and conducting of a disinformation operation. The makeup of a new cabinet appointed on March 1 prompted the opposition to criticize Pres. Bakili Muluzi for favouring appointees from the south of the country, where he had greater support.

In October, however, the president dismissed the entire cabinet after a Public Accounts Committee report implicated that ministers and members of parliament were involved in large-scale corruption. Meanwhile, women’s rights activists accused male members of main political parties of intimidating women interested in standing for election as councillors in the November 21 local government elections.

In August the Australian company Paladin Resources announced that it had started preliminary development work on Malawi’s first uranium mine. It was hoped that mining would begin in 2003.